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shoulders. “Yes, dear. But Mr. Drew is very fortunate,” Hannah went on, “not to have been injured more severely. He was attacked in his office by an unknown assailant.”
    “How dreadful!” Nancy cried out. “Tell me what happened,” she urged as Hannah paused a moment.
    “Your father was seated at his desk. He heard the door open and thought it was his secretary, who was late. Instead, a masked man with a hat pulled low over his forehead rushed in and attacked your father. He fought back, but suddenly his assailant gave him a hard blow which knocked him out. He was unconscious when his secretary found him.”
    “How horrible!” Nancy exclaimed. “Where is Dad now?”
    Hannah said he was in the hospital. The doctor who had been called in had insisted he be taken there and remain quiet for a while.
    “I must go to Dad at once!” Nancy said. “Which hospital, Hannah?”
    “River Heights General.”
    Nancy hurried to the hospital. Upon inquiry, she learned that her father was in Room 782. Her heart pounding, Nancy went up in the elevator and walked swiftly down the hall.
    The door to Room 782 was open. Mr. Drew was in bed, propped up with pillows.
    “Oh, Dad!” Nancy murmured, kissing him lightly.
    “Now don’t worry, honey.” Her father smiled wanly. “I’m really all right. That doctor just wants to make a checkup.”
    “Well, I’m glad you’re all right,” said Nancy. But her eyes traveled to the several bruises on her father’s cheeks and forehead, and she thought his eyes seemed to glisten more than usual. He probably was feverish, she decided.
    “I’m glad you came, honey,” the lawyer said. “Of course this little scrap I got into means I’ll have to postpone my trip to Honolulu.”
    “Never mind,” Nancy consoled him. “I won’t leave yet, either. The mystery of Kaluakua can wait.”
    “I’m afraid it can’t,” Mr. Drew replied. “My attacker said something which I believe makes it imperative for you and the others to go ahead without me and start solving the mystery.”
    The lawyer explained that just before he had lost consciousness from the knockout blow, his assailant had remarked acidly, “Maybe this will keep you on the mainland!”
    Nancy’s jaw set. “It seems to prove that your assailant is one of the Double Scorps.”
    Her father nodded. “I’m sorry that I didn’t get a look at his face. In fact, it was when I tried to, that he gave me the final blow. All I can tell you is, he wore a gray tweed suit.
    “Nancy, I wish you would go to my office and see if you can pick up any clues. The police were notified and they are probably there.” Mr. Drew smiled fondly at his daughter. “Maybe you can give them a little help.”
    Nancy agreed to go at once and return to the hospital later. She hurried to the lawyer’s office and found his secretary, Miss Robertson, on the verge of hysterics.
    “Oh, Nancy, how is he?” the young woman cried out.
    “Dad’s really feeling pretty well,” Nancy replied. “Please tell me your story.”
    Miss Robertson said that she had been late getting in that morning. When she arrived, the door to Mr. Drew’s private office was ajar. “I sorted the mail and started to carry it in to your father’s desk,” she said. “And there—there he was, lying on the floor!”
    “So you didn’t see his attacker?” Nancy asked.
    “No. He’d gone before I got here.”
    Nancy walked into her father’s office. She was greeted by two police detectives whom she knew. One was busy taking fingerprints but said he felt sure Mr. Drew’s assailant had not touched any of the furniture. The other man was examining the carpet with a magnifying glass, trying to distinguish the stranger’s footprints from those of other persons.
    “I’m afraid this isn’t going to be of much help,” he said finally, standing up.
    Nancy, meanwhile, had been walking around the edge of the room, her eyes alert for any clue that the stranger unwittingly might have